The Ozark Trail at Tampico
Turkey, Hall County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1913, William Hope "Coin" Harvey, who operated a resort in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, founded the Ozark Trail Association as a private highway organization. Several Texas and New Mexico counties joined the effort, and the line went diagonally from St. Louis, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico. As part of Harvey's plan, stops along the way featured white obelisks denoting, in the official Ozark Trail green lettering, town names, as well as directions and distances to other towns. The central Ozark route passed across Wellington, Texas, and a second southern route was built through the communities of Childress, Estelline, Tampico, Turkey, Quitaque, Silverton, Tulia, Nazareth and Dimmitt. J.E. Swepston of Tulia, elected Ozark Trail Association president in 1920, was instrumental in having the striking road markers placed in this area. At the time, Hall County had more than 1,000 farms and ranches, and ranchland continued to be divided into farms as more settlers arrived in the area. In 1924, however, with a government initiative to enact a national road-numbering system, the Ozark Trails and other private highways were abandoned or absorbed into the national road system. Adjacent to the Tampico marker was a service station and general store. In 1929, the Tampico oilfield started a short-lived boom in the community, which supported a school. After the oil supply proved minimal, the school consolidated into the Turkey school district. The obelisk, designated a State Archeological Landmark in 1999, remains as a tie to both the early efforts to increase automotive travel and to the community of Tampico. (2006)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1913 William Hope "Coin" Harvey, an Ozark resort operator, founded the Ozark Trail Association to promote a private auto highway running diagonally from St. Louis to Santa Fe, its routes marked by white obelisks lettered in green with town names, directions, and distances. A southern branch threaded through the Texas Panhandle communities of Childress, Estelline, Tampico, Turkey, and beyond, with Tulia's J.E. Swepston championing the markers after his 1920 election as association president. Federal road-numbering absorbed the private trails by 1924, and the nearby Tampico oilfield's 1929 boom soon faded, but this obelisk — a State Archeological Landmark since 1999 — still stands as a relic of early motoring.
Why it matters
The Ozark Trail obelisks are monuments to the grassroots "good roads" movement that stitched together America's first named auto highways before the federal numbered-highway system took over.
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Related people
- · William Hope "Coin" Harvey
- · J.E. Swepston
Themes & tags
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